Descriptive Grammar of English Part 1: Phonetics and Phonology

1. Descriptive Grammarof EnglishPart 1:Phoneticsand Phonology dr Iwona Kokorniak (with contribution from dr Jarosław Weckwerth) 17thJanuary 2009

2. Connected speech • You can’t go with us ju: kɑ:nt gəʊ wɪð ʌs jə kɑ:ŋk gəʊ wɪð əs kɑ:ŋ gəʊ

3. Connected speech • Ten past ten ten pæst ten tem pæs ten

4. Connected speech • I can buy it aɪ kən baɪ ɪt aɪ kəm baɪ ɪt

5. Connected speech • do you think du: ju: θɪŋk də jə θɪŋk dʒə θɪŋk

6. Connected speech • we should go wi: ʃʊd goʊ wi ʃʊg goʊ

7. Why reduced vowels and stuff? • Typical for … • … stressed times languages • Isochrony: • Intervals between stresses … • … tend to be similar … • … irrespective of how many syllables there are in between

8. Stress timing in English • That’s the house that Jackbuilt • And this is the edifice that Jason constructed

9. Stress timing in English

10. Compare • Spanish is an example of a syllable timed language • Here, each syllable occupies more or less the same amount of time

11. Compare • Juanhabla con Fidel • Juanita hablaba con el comandante

12. Syllable timing • Malicious English phoneticians … • … call it ‘machine gun speech’ • Polish is not a typical member of any of the two classes

13. Physical correlates of stress • Pitch • Stressed syllables have higher pitch • Length • Stressed syllables are longer

14. Physical correlates of stress • Loudness • Stressed syllables are louder • Quality • Stressed syllables have full vowels, unstressed syllables may have reduced vowels

15. English stress placement • May fall on any syllable in the word (is free) character develop employee

16. English stress placement • Rules are complex, with many exceptions • Best to memorise with each new word

17. Polish stress placement • In a vast majority of cases • Stress is fixed on the penultimate syllable (second from the end) • Sometimes may cause problems for Polish learners of English

18. Polish stress placement • Traditionally not stressed on the penultimate syllable: • muzyka, etc. • zrobiliśmy, etc. • zrobilibyśmy, etc. • siedemset, etc.

19. English stress • Stress placement: • There are some rules for complex words

20. Secondary stress • In words of 3+ syllables … • … if the main stress is on the third (or further)… • … then one of the first two syllables carries secondary stress

21. Secondary stress

22. Secondary stress • In complex words • Falls on the same syllable where main stress falls in the ‘root’ word

23. Secondary stress because

24. Secondary stress because

25. Tertiary stress • In very long words • There may be tertiary stress in the middle

26. Tertiary stress

27. Stress & suffixes • Some suffixes attract stress to themselves • Refugee, trainee, employee, • Engineer, volunteer, pioneer, • Chinese, Japanese

28. Stress & suffixes • Some suffixes attract stress to a defined syllable • organisation, constribution, intuition, reflection • ability, acceptability, possibility, capability

29. Stress & suffixes • photography, geography, bibliography, geology, meteorology • biological, technical, political, historical

30. Stress & suffixes • Some suffixes are partially regular • photographic, optimistic, terrific, historic • BUT • Arabic, Catholic, heretic, choleric, politic, rhetoric, lunatic

31. Stress & suffixes • potential, fundamental, essential, initial, • BUT • rational, federal, cardinal

32. Stress & suffixes • instinctive, prospective, reflexive, explosive • BUT • alternative, demonstrative, conservarive • BUT • communicative, imaginative

33. Stress & suffixes • dangerous, hazardous, humorous, glamorous • BUT • advantageous, corageous, malicious

34. Stress & suffixes • Some do not affect stress placement at all • organising, associating, communicating, imagining, characterising, developing, influencing

35. Stress & suffixes • associated, alternated, interrogated, influenced • influences, etc. etc. • These are usually very problematic for Poles

36. Stress & suffixes • Compare Polish: • telewizor • telewizora • telewizorowi

37. Compounds & phrases • English teacher • ‘a teacher from England’ (may teach e.g. biology) • ‘a teacher of English’ (may be e.g. Japanese)

38. Compounds & phrases • Compounds • English / biology / art. / chemistry teacher • Phrases • English, short, thin, boring, black, bald teacher

39. Compounds & phrases • Compare Polish: • Pociąg osobowy, pospieszny, towarowy (like compounds) • Długi, czysty, pachnący, szybki pociąg (phrases)

40. Compounds & phrases • Compounds carry early stress (on the 1st element) ‘English teacher ‘hot dog ‘moving van ‘White House

41. Compounds & phrases • Phrases carry late stress (on the last element) English ‘teacher hot ‘dog moving ‘van white ‘house

42. Compounds & phrases • Compound verbs, adjectives and adverbs usually have late stress grow ‘up, double-’check cold ‘blooded, old-’fashioned down-’hill, north-’west

43. Compounds & phrases • Place names (if not with ‘Street’) carry late stress Fifth ‘Avenue, Park ‘Lane, Leicester ‘Square, Hyde ‘Park, New ‘York, Melrose ‘Road

44. Stress shift • English avoids two stressed syllables next to each other • Therefore, if such a thing would result in a phrase … • … the stress in the first word is moved forwards

45. Stress shift ˌJapa'nese but ˌJapanese 'car not Japa‘nese ‘car

46. Stress shift ˌNew'York but ˌNewYork ‘City not New ˌYork ‘City

47. Stress shift • A very good description in Wells’s dictionary

48. The syllable • How many syllables? • Do you know?

49. The syllable • Usually there’s a vowel in each syllable • The vowel plus the consonants around it form the syllable • Which consonants???

50. Syllabification • Consider: extra